Photography

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Hi all! I am now a doTERRA wellness advocate. I have been for over a year but my business is truly taking off so I want to devote more of myself to it. I even ordered new business cards! See http://www.tankprints.com/doterra-business-cards-s/1888.htm

I'm super excited so don't hesitate to contact me or check out my website if you have any questions!

mydoterra.com/oilsbyval

oilsbyval@gmail.com

Thanks for checking in and I hope life is as fabulous for you all as it is for me!

Friday, February 28, 2014

This sweet angel made me and my camera so happy! She turned 4 months old shortly after this session. I simply could.not.get.enough of her adorable perfection! I miss her and her sweet spirit. Lauren, please let me come see her again! I'm addicted!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

I was right. She is the sweetest little girl that ever lived. It was hard to see sometimes as she was always crying from the colic but now that its mostly past, her true personality is coming through and its amazing.

We've been sleep training a little bit this month. When she wakes up too early, I keep going back in to pop in the pacifier. Since she's so good with her hands now, she pulls it out in her sleep and wakes herself up. She'll get past that soon though. Its a work in progress.

She loves eye contact and any attention she can get. She is starting to really like Greg (thank God!) and simply can't get enough of Cole. Its getting difficult to nurse her in the same room as him because when she hears his voice she won't eat and cranes her neck to find him to watch. He gets her giggling and smiling more than anyone else.

Her eyes are still mostly blue but with some spokes of brown traveling outward from the pupil. We'll have to wait and see but my gut is that we're going to have another brown-eyed beauty.

She does love my dad quite a bit. She doesn't like calm or soothing humor. She likes it loud and rough. My dad obliges by being the craziest and most energetic form of entertainment that sometimes includes...take a breath...acrobatics. I've seen my babies airborne with no hands around except for a foot or two beneath them. He was that way with all of us and I know he'd never take a chance with his favorite things in the universe but still....heart stopping.

She loves to do any standing and got in her baby einstein jumper this month for the first time (just before she hit 5 months). She loves to stand assisted on my lap and can almost sit up on her own. She loved snow play this month and we had several snows to entertain her. This has been the snowiest winter I ever remember in my lifetime. She rolled over the night before she turned 5 months old. She rolled from front to back several times in a row! I'm so grateful Greg was there to see it with me. She weighs 14.5 lbs on our home electric scale but it always measured identically to the scale at the ob office when I was pregnant with her. I tested it several times.

This month she has mostly overcome colic. I can eat just about anything in moderation and she seems to handle it pretty well. Not perfectly but way better than she used to. However, we hit a new challenge this month. Teething. AH. With Cole, I barely noticed he was teething at all. He never drooled. She seems like she is in pain quite a bit. At one point, I was worried about an ear infection because she wouldn't lay on that side of her head and seemed like she was in pain. I finally figured out that it was all teething pain. I've had to put bibs on her frequently because of the sheer amount of drool pouring from her sweet mouth.

Our big thing this month was the start of chiropractic care. I had noticed her head had an odd shape but I just thought that was how it was. I didn't think it was quite extreme enough to be "flat-head syndrome". Over the course of a few days, all of those thoughts changed. She had only been sleeping about an hour at a time at night and much of that was while she was attached to me in bed nursing. That decreased to 1/2 hour segments and she woke up screaming in pain. I began to wonder if it was because she was in pain on her back. I put her on her stomach for one nap and she slept better than she had in a long time. I immediately reached out and was sent to a chiropractic practice who works with tons of babies and are very practiced on babies with Heidi's head problem. We were only there for a few minutes when the two chiropractors (both attended our appointment) confirmed my suspicion that it was flat-head syndrome. They guessed that she was sleeping horribly if she was on her back and explained that the bones were pushing in places they weren't meant to causing her a lot of pain and headaches. The said to keep her off her back from then on and have her sleep on her stomach only. We saw them 2-3 times a week for a few weeks and her head looks completely different. She no longer cries if her head rests on something like in her car seat. She sleeps better on her tummy anyway (she is very strong so I'm not at all concerned that she won't be able to lift her head up...don't worry). She now sleeps for 2-3 hour chunks at night and takes 4 naps during the day ranging anywhere from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours! She is happier all around. They've done a little work on her back too which seems to have made a big difference too.

We have had some constipation issues which started at the same time as chiropractic but I don't think it has anything to do with it as that is one of the biggest benefits to chiropractic (regularity). I think it has to do with me introducing more foods and taking her off of the colic probiotic drops. She went 5 whole days without going and she was NOT happy about it. I got reintroduced to essential oils and am now a consultant so I've been using the oils for a variety of things and they seem to have been helping her too. I use (on her) lavender for night-time massages and DigestZen for digestive health.

All in all, another blessed month of growth and learning where the magic in my life has been even more evident.

My sweet Heidi,

I'm so happy we have begun to understand some of the problems you have been facing. I feel so awful we didn't catch them sooner and am sad you had to spend any time in pain. You bore it all so well though and have made me one grateful momma. I'm so amazed at how much you respond to me. I really seem to be exactly the thing you want most of the time. You light up when you see me and search for me if, for the brief seconds I allow it, someone else has you. You make me feel so important and special. To be trusted with such a precious responsibility as you is something I will strive to be worthy of my entire life. Being a mother, your mother, is truly my life's calling and I'm lucky you are one of my blessings to care for.

About Me

I'm a new wife and an even newer mom. I have a secret dream to be super-mom. I love to craft, cook, dance and fill my life with as many adventures as possible. I'm slightly crunchy granola but enjoy a good steak. I'm right brained and type B (with some type A tendencies). I thrive best when I get to use my creative juices. I dabble in photography and party planning. I play piano and have a dream to learn the cello. I want to make the most of this one, short life I find myself living.

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About This Blog

This blog was originally intended to be a personal journal of my pregnancy journey and all that that entails--shared with only a few close family members. It was a way for me to keep them posted on all things baby and occasionally post a picture of my growing torso so they could see the progress. After several posts, I started to get hooked on other blogs and became motivated to attempt to do more with mine. We'll see how it goes....